Boss' Eating Problem Needs Workable Solution

Our boss is an overweight woman with a definite eating disorder. She eats anything and everything, all day long. Needless to say, she can buy all the food she wants. But here is our problem.

Every day when my co-workers and I sit down for our coffee break or our lunch, Madame Boss comes by and picks food off our plates with her fingers. She sticks her long, dirty fingernails into our salads and plucks out the olives. Yesterday she licked off her knife and stuck it into a container of cream cheese a co-worker had brought from home. The woman was so disgusted, she ended up throwing away the rest of the carton.

We're all afraid to say anything because after all, she's the boss, and our fate is in her hands. Will you kindly tell us how to handle this annoying problem?

Grossed Out in Fallbrook, Calif.

Dear Grossed: There's more than piggishness or bad manners involved. Your boss has a serious problem. She is a compulsive eater. Whenever the woman sees food, she simply must have "a taste."

Is there anyplace you can eat where she will not see you? Outside? Down the hall? Another room? An alternative strategy: Bring a small container of whatever you fix for yourselves for this pathetic creature. This woman has a compulsion that she is unable to control.

New American male shouldn't get the needle

Dear Ann Landers: That letter from the Michigan mother whose daughter was doing her boyfriend's laundry brought back memories of my college days in the early 1970s.

It was common then to see girls doing their boyfriends' laundry and ironing in our dorm. I thought it was disgusting that these guys came to college not knowing how to take care of themselves. Once, a fellow in math class asked me to sew a button on his shirt because he didn't own a needle or thread.

At a time when high schools are dropping their home economics or family living skills classes, we need them more than ever. Parents should be doing it, but they aren't. TV commercials are how most people learn to clean bathrooms, mop floors and do laundry these days.

Please print this letter and shake 'em up, Ann.

Montevideo, Minn.

Dear M.M.: The game has changed. Look again, and you will see more men than ever doing marketing. (Meat markets have become meet markets for singles. Haven't you heard?)

The same men can be found in laundermats doing their towels, bedsheets, socks and shorts. They clean their own apartments, and many are darned good cooks.

Welcome to the '90s! It's a different world out there. Women are opting for law, medicine and engineering. (No longer is it only nursing or teaching.) Men are looking after themselves as they never have before. I think the new American male is terrific.

Gem of the Day: Never give black coffee to an intoxicated person. You may wind up with a wide-awake drunk on your hands.

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Lonesome? Take charge of your life and turn it around. Write for Ann Landers' booklet "How to Make Friends and Stop Being Lonely." Send a long, self-addressed envelope and a check or money order for $4.15 to: Friends, c/o Ann Landers, P.O. Box 11562, Chicago, Ill. 60611-0562.